


Kindergarten

by tanarill



Series: Haunted Past [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Dubious Consent, Healing, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Sleep, Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-11
Updated: 2007-04-11
Packaged: 2019-03-19 14:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13706727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanarill/pseuds/tanarill
Summary: Redemption always has its entanglements.





	Kindergarten

Dan had never had a childhood. He had . . . memories, kind of, of two childhoods. Or of one childhood and one pre-young-adult time. He could remember some of the memories being happy, of knowing that at one point things like Easter eggs hunts and arguing with his sister had been nice. He didn’t seem to have the ability to feel that way anymore, as if it were a knack that he’d lost at some point. He was fairly sure he could put his finger down on that point.

Beside him, Danny stirred restlessly in his sleep.

But lately, he’d been getting flashes. Flashes of what, he wasn’t quite sure. Flashes, anyway, while he and Danny repeated an argument they’d had so many times by now that it was as much ritual as easy-natured fight. When he pinned Danny to the bed and tickled him senseless. During late-night B-movie marathons, when, stuffed with popcorn and candy and other such junk and he was just coming down off the high, he was able to put his head in Danny’s lap not have to worry that he’d wake up in a warm tangle on the floor, all awkward angles and cramps in odd places.

Danny thrashed a bit, perhaps having a nightmare of Dan’s second appearance in his life. Dan put an arm around him, and immediately the younger ghost stilled, cuddling against him and clinging as if to a life raft. Perhaps he was.

Danny was so different like this, all soft curves and whiteness, nothing like Dan. He knew he had not done anything to deserve him, had done a lot that could be considered the opposite of “deserve him,” and for some odd reason Danny had looked at his tormentor and chosen him, even though he couldn’t possibly have chosen anyone worse.

Still asleep, Danny thrashed again. Dan stroked his hair–hardly ever black, not anymore–and pressed a cooling kiss to his lover’s forehead.

He might not have a childhood, but he was learning what he needed to know; and this time, once he had it, he was never going to let it go again.

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to only remember this every other week.
> 
> This week, I worked on my academic paper. Why must academia be so dry?


End file.
